
Behind the Mic: ESPN Unfurls Long List of College Football Playoff Talent, Re-Signs Two Notable Baseball Faces By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Friday, December 13, 2019 - 1:23 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Behind the Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, ESPN readies for the college football playoff, the network extends the deals of two baseball personalities, and CBS Sports HQ adds three names to studio list.
ESPN's postseason college football coverage is highlighted by the exclusive presentation of the College Football Playoff, which begins with the Semifinals on Saturday, Dec. 28. The College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will feature No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oklahoma (4 p.m. ET) from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. The Peach Bowl precedes the CFP Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson (8 p.m.) from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The winners will play in the CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T (8 p.m.) from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans on Monday, Jan. 13.
In the broadcasting booth, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit will call the Fiesta Bowl, while Sean McDonough and Todd Blackledge team up for the Peach Bowl. Fowler, Herbstreit, and Blackledge have called a CFP Semifinal all six years of the system, with Fowler and Herbstreit working together in each of those years. McDonough is calling his second consecutive CFP Semifinal with Blackledge.
ESPN will utilize reporters Maria Taylor and Tom Rinaldi at the Fiesta Bowl, their third and sixth CFP Semifinal, respectively. At the Peach Bowl, Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge will report, also their sixth and third, respectively. Taylor will be with Clemson, Rinaldi reports on Ohio State, while Rowe is with LSU and Rutledge has Oklahoma.
Fowler, Herbstreit, Taylor, and Rinaldi will head to Pasadena to call the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual between No. 6 Oregon and No. 8 Wisconsin (5 p.m.), and McDonough, Blackledge, and Rowe travel to New Orleans for the Allstate Sugar Bowl featuring No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 7 Baylor (8:30 p.m.) on New Year's Day. At the Rose Bowl, Taylor will report on the Ducks and Rinaldi on the Badgers.
ESPN's presentation of the New Year's Six will begin with the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between No. 16 Memphis and No. 10 Penn State (noon) on Saturday, Dec. 28, which will lead into the CFP Semifinals. The Capital One Orange Bowl between No. 9 Florida and No. 24 Virginia (8 p.m.) on Monday, Dec. 30, will precede the New Year's Day bowls and follow the CFP Semifinals.
Mark Jones, Dusty Dvoracek, and Olivia Dekker will call the Nittany Lions-Tigers matchup, with Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay, and Molly McGrath on the Gators-Cavaliers.
Levy, Griese, McShay, and McGrath will also call the CFP Semifinal at the Peach Bowl on ESPN Radio, while Sean Kelley, Barrett Jones, and Ian Fitzsimmons call the Fiesta Bowl for the network.
Herbstreit calls the Las Vegas Bowl featuring No. 19 Boise State vs. Washington with Bob Wischusen and McGrath, airing in primetime (7:30 p.m.) on Saturday, Dec. 21 on ABC
Dave Pasch, Greg McElroy, and Tom Luginbill call the Vrbo Citrus Bowl between No. 14 Michigan vs. No. 13 Alabama (1 p.m.) on ABC
Jason Benetti, Rod Gilmore, and Quint Kessenich call the Outback Bowl featuring No. 18 Minnesota vs. No. 12 Auburn (1 p.m.) on ESPN
Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky, and Allison Williams call the Camping World Bowl between No. 15 Notre Dame vs. Iowa State (noon) who are playing each other for the first time, December 28 on ABC.
Ryan Leaf will make his ESPN bowl debut calling his alma mater as Washington State plays Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl (10:15 p.m.) Friday, Dec. 27 on ESPN. Leaf teams with Clay Matvick on the call
ESPN has re-signed veteran Major League Baseball analyst Eduardo P rez to a multi-year extension. P rez will remain one of ESPN's signature baseball analysts, contributing to both event and studio coverage. P rez first joined ESPN in 2006 and served as an analyst through 2010. He returned to ESPN in 2014.
P rez will continue his game analyst role for ESPN's Monday Night Baseball and its coverage of MLB Opening Day, Holiday Baseball and many of ESPN's international MLB telecasts. P rez will also remain the primary analyst on ESPN's Statcast-driven alternate presentations for the T-Mobile Home Run Derby and its Wild Card coverage.
The versatile P rez will regularly appear on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, MLB on ESPN Radio, and other news and information platforms. He will also continue his analyst role for the Men's College World Series.
In recent years, P rez has become a staple of ESPN's international MLB game telecasts, helping to lead coverage of the 2016 spring training game in Cuba, regular-season games in Mexico and Puerto Rico, and for the Japan Opening Series in 2019
ESPN has also reached an extension with Major League Baseball analyst Doug Glanville. The nine-year MLB veteran will continue to provide expert insight on ESPNstudio programs including Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter.
Glanvillefirst joined ESPN as an analyst in 2010 for seven years and returned in March of 2019 as a contributor to ESPN studio programming. He spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies, and also played for the Chicago Cubs and the Texas Rangers. Glanville tallied 1,100 hits throughout his career and retired in 2004 with his streak of 293 games without an error intact
CBS Sports HQ has also expanded its talent roster with three new anchors.
Brandon Baylor joins CBS Sports HQ from WFTS in Tampa, FL, where he had s
North America Stories
08/07/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is applauding the passage of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill and provision...
08/07/2025
SYDNEY RTS has announced that Channel 7 Sydney has deployed a new comms system from RTS as part of a larger ST-2110 upgrade....
08/07/2025
ATLANTA & CINCINNATI Gray Media, Inc. and The E.W. Scripps Company have entered into agreements to swap television stations across five mid-sized and small mark...
07/07/2025
Advanced vision solutions deliver more than reliable night vision for tactical-edge warfighters. Today's technological advances can provide the capability f...
07/07/2025
BALTIMORE Sinclair has named Narinder Sahai its executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective immediately....
07/07/2025
Riedel Communications today announced the launch of RefSuite, a powerful new Managed Technology solution tailored to professional sports workflows. RefSuite com...
07/07/2025
Regional base will foster client engagement, partner collaboration, and executive touchpoints
Skandha Media Services, a leading provider of cloud-native media ...
07/07/2025
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, announced its Against All Odds - ASG Builds Cutti...
07/07/2025
Agreement secured on the strength of Skandha's proven track record in delivering reliable managed services across the full content life cycle for existing h...
07/07/2025
1-2 Punch: The Cloud, Generative AI, and the Future of Sports-Content Distributi...
07/07/2025
Tests and decisions: Formula E host broadcaster Aurora on launching new AR graph...
07/07/2025
Building tension: Using new AR graphics for storytelling at the Formula E penult...
07/07/2025
Altitude Sports' Matt Krol on the Success of the RSN's In-Arena Postgame...
07/07/2025
SVG Rewind: Four NFL Clubs Bring Us on Set of Respective Media Day Shoots An in-depth conversation with 49ers Laura Johnson, Ravens Jay O'Brien, Las Vegas R...
07/07/2025
Cosm To Build Fifth Shared Reality Venue in Cleveland as Part of Bedrock's ...
07/07/2025
Back to All News
She Walks in Darkness, Agust n D az Yanes New Film, Premieres ...
05/07/2025
Back to All News
Superestar, the Story of a Star Who Never Changed. Premiering July 18
Entertainment
05 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Dis...
04/07/2025
By Lucy Spicer
Editor's note: We are deeply saddened by the passing of Robe...
04/07/2025
Introducing CVP Auctions: Trusted Tech, At Auction-Only Prices
Brie Clayton July 4, 2025
0 Comments
A New Destination for Film and Broadcast Gear at U...
04/07/2025
Unveiling China's Ecological Wonders with URSA Mini Pro 12K
Brie Clayton July 4, 2025
0 Comments
Nature Documentaries Freeze Epic Momentsin Extrem...
04/07/2025
Create Any Planet in After Effects
Graham Quince July 4, 2025
0 Comments
The Advanced 3D renderer in After Effects makes it really easy to import 3D o...
04/07/2025
Custom Gradient Colorize for Resolve Fusion
Simon Ubsdell July 4, 2025
0 Comments
Digging into the theory of the gradient colorize process to build ou...
04/07/2025
Watching live sports on TV these days is a delicate balance for broadcasters how much information is too much?...
04/07/2025
WASHINGTON As Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr works to achieve his goal of a very busy, productive summer at the FCC, the agency has rele...
04/07/2025
Other World Computing Launches OWC Guardian USB-C Hardware-Encrypted Portable SS...
04/07/2025
CANAL Brings MotoGP to Vision Pro with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton July 3, 2025
0 Comments
Experience MotoGP like never before as CA...
03/07/2025
To achieve a true level of decisive overmatch, communication systems must be as ...
03/07/2025
The Broadcasters Foundation of America has named Ray Hopkins, president of U.S. distribution at Paramount Global, to its board of directors....
03/07/2025
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. In his first major policy speech, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr outlined his Build America Agenda for the agency'...
03/07/2025
As the industry is making a major push to transition to NextGen TV and develop new businesses that will fund the next generation of broadcasting, TV Tech's ...
03/07/2025
Despite enabling its subscribers to watch films and TV shows in the highest possible resolution, Netflix has revealed it is taking things old school with the in...
03/07/2025
WASHINGTON In response to news that Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump, Democrats and other administra...
03/07/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications today launched RefSuite for professional sports workflows....
03/07/2025
WEITERSTADT, Germany LYNX Technik, a provider of modular signal processing solutions, has announced that founder and longtime CEO Winfried Deckelmann is steppin...
03/07/2025
WASHINGTON Representatives from six trade groups representing tech, pay TV, broadband, LPTV and other sectors recently met with Federal Communications Commissio...
03/07/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wis. Dan Whealy has acquired Heartland Video Systems and will be its new owner and president, the systems integrator said....
03/07/2025
Acclaimed filmmaker, educator, and industry veteran Jay Holben has released his most ambitious work to date: The Director's Guide to Everything a sweeping...
03/07/2025
For Los Angeles-based photographer Scout Pruski, documenting the annual Dyke Day LA is a way to honor and give back to the city's legacy queer community and...
03/07/2025
Modular, Travel-Ready Solution Matthews Studio Equipment launches the new Chimera V-Flat Panel Frame Kit, the lightweight and modular, ultra-durable alternativ...
03/07/2025
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the release of Dalet Flex 2025.6 LTS (long-term support), introdu...
03/07/2025
Lightware's LARA Wizard makes it quicker and easier than ever to set up audio-visual (AV) room automation and control configurations, ensuring anyone, from ...
03/07/2025
Alfalite, the only European manufacturer of LED screens, has obtained both the NCAGE Code (NATO Commercial and Government Entity) and TAA (Trade Agreements Act)...
03/07/2025
nxtedition is implementing a new solution for WIN Network, based in its headquarters in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. The nxtedition integrated platfo...
03/07/2025
ORS Group and Insys Video Technologies today announce the launch of a new joint brand identity: Big Blue Marble. The move reflects the evolution of a long-stand...
03/07/2025
Evergent, a global leader in customer lifecycle management and monetization solutions for subscription-based businesses, today announced the successful results ...
03/07/2025
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions today announces an executive leadership transition, effective July 1, 2025. Markus Motzko has been...
03/07/2025
Chaos Releases V-Ray for Blender
Brie Clayton July 2, 2025
0 Comments
Production-Proven Renderer V-Ray Arrives Natively in Blender for the First Time;...
03/07/2025
Calvin University Adds Blackmagic Replay to Broadcasts and Streams
Brie Clayton July 2, 2025
0 Comments
Replay workflow joins 14 Blackmagic Design cam...
03/07/2025
Berklee's Gospel Performance Program Welcomes Jonathan Nelson as the Herb Al...
03/07/2025
Back to All News
Get Ready for Even More Action! Netflix Has Confirmed the Thir...